In recent years, high volume shipments of crude oil and petroleum products by vessels and barges at sea has become an increasingly important mode of transportation of such products. However, with increasing shipments, and large vessels, as well as offshore drilling rigs and the like, the possibility of environmental damage caused by spillage of such products has become increasingly important.
One method for controlling the spills has been to encircle the resulting "oil slick" with a floating containment boom. Such a boom is towed by boat to the site of the oil spill, and the boat with the boom in tow then encircles the spill in order to restrict the spread thereof.
However, such containment booms of early design were met with a number of problems which were only encountered after use. For example, the tremendous force exerted on the booms by the wave action could easily break apart many of the prior art booms. Of course, when this occurs, the violent wave action rapidly spreads the oil slick. However, even if the boom had sufficient strength to withstand the wave action, another problem would quite often arise, namely the possibility of fire. Because of the highly volatile nature of many of the spilled petroleum products, fire is an ever present concern, since any such fire could damage the towing vessel or any nearby shore or harbor structures. If the boom were destroyed by the fire itself, then as the oil slick would spread, so would the fire in an uncontrollable fashion. Further, if the fire were to damage the containment boom, spread of the fire to adjacent structures would also occur.
Prior art containment booms are typified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,638,430; 3,673,804; 3,731,491; 3,924,412; 3,973,406; 3,998,060; 4,062,191; and 4,190,381. However, these devices all tend to suffer from one or more of the disadvantages mentioned above.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide an improved containment boom.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a containment boom which is sufficiently flexible as to be wave compliant.
Another object of this invention is to provide a containment boom which, while being wave compliant, retains sufficient strength to withstand the forces to which it is subjected by wave action.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a fire resistant or fireproof containment boom.
Yet a further object of this invention is to provide a containment boom of high strength, flexibility, and fire resistancy.
Yet a further object of this invention is to provide a containment boom which may be readily adjusted to the length needed.